Of Promises and Kisses and Everything After
by MissForsythe
Summary: Haven drabbles, post episode 11.
1. Three Kisses

Title: Three Kisses/Cold  
>Author: MissForsythe<p>

Rating: K  
>Summary: Just two drabbles, one post Business as Usual and the other set between BaU and the finale.<br>Disclaimer: ahem, did you see them sleep together in Fridays episode? No? Then I don't own the show.  
>Author's Notes: Kiss, kiss, kiss, squee. That and no one has written anything yet so I got dibs.<p>

Three Kisses

The first time she kisses him, it's nothing more then a friendly gesture. His cheek is cool and soft and vaguely smells like aftershave. In the weeks that follow, she ponders it. Maybe a hug would have been better, perhaps she should have left it at words. Then he starts acting all weird, wanting to shake her hand and asking high fives for silly things like coffee and extra paperclips. She'd laugh if she wasn't so horribly confused by it all.

Audrey knows that this is one of those doors that she kicked open without thinking about the things hiding behind it.

The second time, oh that glorious second time. He found Lucy Ripley for her, which in her mind, is the most logical thing yet she never thought of it first. He hands her the note, and tells her to go find her answers. The rest of his speech is blurry in her mind, because she's overwhelmed and happy and sad and all she can do is throw her arms around his neck. When she lets go, she sees those big blue eyes and she feels the butterflies come to life.

She starts to walk away, but the ground is wobbly beneath her feet and she's not ready to walk on it yet. She concedes to the butterflies and gives him the most intense kiss she can muster. His lips are soft and warm and taste like coffee, matching her own. He's so shocked that he forgets to touch her, a fact which she knows he'll make up to her at some point.

The third kiss happens the same night. She waits for him at his house until he comes back from the meeting. He doesn't say anything, but sits across from her and waits for her to talk. She tells him about Lucy Ripley and the mysterious entity that came to "erase" her. For a moment, she considers telling him about Duke and the diary, but she decides that it's a battle not worth fighting tonight.

She makes him promise that if they do this, them, that he'll take pictures and make little cell phone movies and whatever else is necessary in order for him to remember. Just when she gets going, he kisses her and the words are lost somewhere between him pulling her to her feet and her steering him inside the house. 


	2. Cold

Title: Cold  
>Author: MissForsythe<p>

Rating: K  
>Summary: Just two drabbles, one post Business as Usual and the other set between BaU and the finale.<br>Disclaimer: ahem, did you see them sleep together in Fridays episode? No? Then I don't own the show, sorry.  
>Author's Notes: Kiss, kiss, kiss, squee. That and no one has written anything yet so I got dibs. <p>

**Cold**

The first thing Audrey feels when she wakes up is the cold. Living in a seaside town, this is not unusual, but she knows the difference between a morning chill and a door being left open during that chill. She slowly opens her eyes, immediately noticing the empty space next to her.

She finds him leaning against the railing, his eyes closed and probably lost in his own thoughts. She snakes her arms around him from behind, and rests her head against his bare back. He runs his fingers over her upper arm, in a steady line that makes her catch her breath for a minute.

_"It's cold out here, you know"  
><em>  
>He shrugs, a reaction that she finds less endearing about him. He spent over a decade not feeling anything and she can imagine that it's a hard habit to shake, but still. Her skin is puckered with goosebumps, and his hand is ghosting over it. She smiles into his shoulder, and places a gentle kiss against the scar tissue. Sometimes she thinks his back consists of patches and stitch marks and the occasional birth mark to even things out. She loves tracing her fingers over it late at night when he's fast asleep. It relaxes him and soothes him and she's more then happy to oblige to it.<p>

_'Hey, I have a warm bed and warm sheets and it kind of sucks if you're not there to share them with me."_

He turns around to face her, and she reaches up to tousle his hair. Sometimes, she think she'll never get used to the way he looks at her. It's hungry and loving and tender all at the same time, and it makes her go weak at the knees.

"Show me"

And so she does.


	3. Hands

Title: Hands

Author: eviebean

Rating: quite safe

Summary: part three of my drabble-thon (Nathan pov)

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own anything other and an over active imagination

Author's Notes: Kiss, kiss, kiss, squeeeee…

Hands

His hands find hers so easily. It's the sort of thing he does without thinking.

It takes them a while to get used to all these new sensations, of love and want and need. So they spend the first month after their kiss testing the boundaries. It starts with hand holding. When they start watching dinosaur documentaries together on Thursday nights, her hand finds his under the blanket and he squeezes it tight whenever the scary parts come on.

The hand holding then evolves to a more public display of affection. After though cases, they'll take a walk on the beach. Neither of them wants to be the first to admit how much the case affected them, so they walk in silence. They'll sit side by side watching the waves, and when she's ready, she'll tap his hand to make his fingers curl around hers. It's only the two of them, but as far as affections go, it's enough for now.

Two months after their kiss, she holds his hand as they stroll through the Sunday Market. They buy apples and a bottle of cider for later, and oh, she's holding his hand where everyone can see. It makes a strange sensation bubble up inside him. She must have caught on to it, because there's a pink blush on her cheeks and a light in her eyes that he's never noticed before.

When they make it to the four and a half month mark of hand holding, around Christmas time, he takes her to Bangor to go Christmas shopping. There, they graduate from hand holding to him having an arm around her waist and occasionally kissing her temple in the middle of a crowded shopping mall. This stage is brief, because it leads a cosy hotel room and room service and not coming back to Haven until the weekend is well and truly over.


	4. Soft Pink

Title: Soft Pink

Author: MissForsythe

Rating: quite safe

Summary: part three of my drabble-thon (Nathan pov)

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own anything other and an over active imagination

Author's Notes: I spent a looooong time figuring out a title for this one. This was the least cheesy of the lot.

Soft Pink

One of the responsibilities that come with being Chief, is that Nathan gets invited to a lot of dinners, weddings, and other formal occasions. He usually declines about half of them, but when the Herald celebrates its 75th birthday, Vince and Dave throw a huge extravaganza at their office.

The other reason he doesn't decline is because Audrey is excited about it. The Teagues already bought her a dress before she even knew the occasion, and it will be their first real date. He arrives at the Gull at 9, and is surprised he can't find her waiting. Duke regards him with both sympathy and pity (and glee, of course). He paces, until he is poured a glass of scotch which is unceremoniously set down in front of him. Duke also makes the effort to shout up the stairs for her to hurry up.

He takes a sip of his drink, and then he notices her lingering in the doorway. He knows that she looks good in dresses, but in this soft pink number, she looks absolutely stunning.

He knows because not only does she take his breath away every time he looks at her, but upon their arrival, he could swear the room goes quiet for few seconds. He thinks that he could spend all night watching her move around the room, talking and laughing with various people. But he doesn't want to do that. He wants to take her home and watch her move around his bedroom as she undresses and climbs under the sheets with him.


	5. Wash

Title: Wash  
>Author: eviebean<br>Rating: K (sort of)  
>Summary: New drabble in my series, just the one this time<br>Disclaimer: You have to ask this question?  
>Author's Notes: Set post-finale. Yes, I know Nathan wouldn't be able to feel the temperature of the water, but then I tried writing that without it coming across as expository, and so I left it alone for the sake of the story.<p>

Three days after Audrey goes missing, she's found by hikers, wandering around on Kick'em Jenny Neck. She has no recollection of how she got there, but her camisole is dirty and her bare feet are bleeding.

Nathan gets the call not forty-five minutes later, and he runs around the room as fast as his drunken haze allows him. In his hurry, he rudely wakes Duke, who has been staying on the couch to make sure he doesn't drive off a cliff in anguish. The drive to the harbour seems to take hours, and he curses when the small motor boat won't go fast enough to his liking. In the distance, he can see faint light from a fire. In this moment, he'd jump in the icy waters if he thought that it would be the faster way to get there.

The hikers have put a blanket around her shivering body, and his heart stops when he sees that look in her her eyes. The look that says everything and nothing at the same time. She looks up when he approaches, and her dirty face and blue eyes and the tears streaming down her face make all the built up worry explode. He sits down next to her, traces a finger down her cheek and then pulls her close to him. She remains that way as he carries her back to the boat, and he cradles her to him during the ride back to town. Duke steers, and doesn't say anything.

Once inside his house, they carry her to the bathroom and check her for injuries. Other then the strange marks around her wrists and the battered feet, she seems fairly physically intact. Duke, insightful as he is, takes this as a hint and leaves them alone. She sits on the bathroom stool and watches as he fiddles with the taps on the bathtub.

The next step, however, is the one that frightens and excites him the most. He pulls her into a standing position, and slowly pulls her dirty camisole off. He tries not to stare, but it's difficult. She notices, and he could swear that there's a smile forming under the layer of dirt. When she stands naked before him, he helps her into the tub and her soft moan is the first clear sound she makes since she was found. He sits on the floor next to the tub, watching as she seems to float right under the surface of the water. When he gets out a washcloth to use, she grabs his wrist and he can hear her say „You too" as he walks away. He starts undressing and urges her to scoot forwards as he gets in behind her. The tub is too small for his long legs, but he doesn't really notice. He can feel skin, hair and shoulders and her spine and her ass and her legs laying alongside his body. The sensation, coupled with the soothing warmth of the water, makes him dizzy and happy all at the same time.

He runs the washcloth over her face and body, wherever he can reach. He rubs shampoo into her hair and gently combs it with fingers when he's done.

After, they don't bother with clothes. He guides to his bedroom, and picks her up into his arms when even the short distance is too painful for her. They lay down, tangled into eachother, and sleep a dreamless sleep.


	6. Strength

Title: Strength

Author: MissForsythe

Rating: Other then extreme fluff, none.

Summary: New drabble in the „Of Promises and Kisses" series

Disclaimer: I think, if I owned the show, you wouldn't be waiting until next summer for a new season.

Author's Notes_: Brief re-write of that scene where Nathan tells Audrey what happened between him and Duke. __I wanted to like it, but it was just so awkwardly shoved in, I wondered what the point was of having it there in the first place. I also wanted a little more emotional pay off from it, so see below. _

They arrive at the cemetery, and she's busy checking her messages as they enter. He leans against a tree, observing her as she comments on a lab result she received. He enjoys observing her, he enjoys that she looks at him differently now.

„_Audrey, I know you think you know Duke"_

He doesn't even know where the words come from, or why he's telling her now. He'd wanted to wait until she asked of her own accord, but being around her, his heart tends to work faster then his brain.

„_I do"_

He tells her the story of that fishing trip, of the fight and the punches he didn't feel. He doesn't tell her about that feeling of disappointment and betrayal that still haunts him every time Duke's name is mentioned.

„_My trouble came back because of him andI don't think he even gave a damn"_

She's moving closer now, so close that he can feel the warmth of her body radiating against his.

"_You can never trust him"_

Her arms snake around his neck, and his instinctively wrap around her waist. They stand like that for a while, and he can feel her body relax against his. It's a sensation that overwhelms and calms him, and the words stop coming for a while. This time, he initiates the kiss, tangles his fingers and holds her to him, telling her that he wants more, always more of this.

"_Nathan"_

She breaks the kiss, and he doesn't think he's ever seen a more beautiful shade of blue then the one he sees in her eyes.

"_If we're going to do this, us, I need you to do something for me, something important."_

She runs her fingers over his face, along the line of his neck, touching the metal of the chain. Tomorrow night, he thinks, she'll be doing that. Laying with her head on his chest, her finger darting in and out of the ring. The thought alone is enough to drive him insane.

"_I need you to let it go"_

The words don't register immediately, even though it's not the hardest thing she's asking of him. He has tried over the years, and each time, another wedge was driven between them, until there were too many of them to overcome. Until she showed up in their lives, that is. She doesn't allow them to fued, even though she hadn't known the reason until a few minutes ago.

"_It's just…he's my friend, and you're my friend and soon you'll be more, and I…need to know that…"_

She contemplates her words for a moment, fiddles with a button on his shirt.

"_That you'll come find me, that you'll trust Duke enough to let him help you, and that I don't have to come back to Haven with no memories and having to start over with this incredible thing that we have right now. I want to solve the Troubles, but I can't find the answers if…you two…You are so important to me, and I love you both and please Nathan.."_

He kisses her forehead, he makes a promise that he'll never let any harm come to her. That even if the worst happens, they'll go to the ends of the earth to find her. He knows this, he's sure Duke does too.

"_Promise you'll forgive?"_

He nods, and she rest her head in the crook of his shoulder. He rocks her for a few more minutes until she composes herself, until she tells him that they really should get on with their investigation. He never thought letting someone go could cause such a cold chill going through him.

He watches her walk a few steps in front of him, his arms tingling and his head spinning.

„_Anything for you, Audrey, always."_


	7. Dream

Title: Dream  
>Author: MissForsythe<br>Rating: It's pure fluff, mind your teeth.  
>Summary: Of dreams and apples and clowns.<br>Disclaimer: Uh, no, don't own shit.

Author's Notes: **I like reviews, they always make my day.**

On a sunny winter morning, three weeks into their new relationship, they discuss dreams.

Dreams they had as children (An undefined mother saving all the orphans, a mother who was miracously alive to witness sports victories and birthday parties…), the nightmares too. The one she had when she was ten, about clowns dying in the middle of their circus act. She leaves out the one about creaking doors in the middle of the night and Mickey Mouse scissors. Someday she'll tell him, but only if she finds the courage to not fall apart while doing so.

He tells her about a recurring, silly one where the Bronco goes over a cliff and he's helplessly watching from afar.

They talk of current dreams, like the one from three nights ago, where men without faces came to steal her away from him and the relative safety of his bedroom in the night. They show her his face as he wakes and reads the note she supposedly left behind. It makes her shudder and bury her face in the crook of his shoulder. He counters with the one he's been having of The Chief lately, of talks in a graveyard and being shown a headstone of a woman named Lucy Rasmussen. Died 1743.

The dream always ends with the Chief dryly noting that the grave is empty and is forever waiting for its occupant.

She kisses his collarbone, and then works her way up to his face and they get lost in each other for a while after that.

After, they'll talk of dreams yet to come. Of empty houses just outside of town, little farmhouses with a big yard and weathered picket fences surrounding them. Sometimes they'll talk of dreams involving pets, and they'll agree that any dog they'll own must be reliable and sweet and a good watchdog.

He doesn't tell her of that other dream, though, the one that only last seconds but encompasses a lifetime. The one where he can see wedding rings and life in her belly and a handcarved crib in a corner of the living room.

In turn, she'll tell him about the apple dream, the one where he buys her red and green apples (never the nasty yellowish ones) for no reason at all. He'll sneak a bite of one when she's caught up in her reading, and he'll kiss her and taste of apple and mint and best of all, so uniquely of him.


	8. Arcana

Title: Arcana  
>Author: MissForsythe<p>

Rating: T  
>Summary: Destiny is in the cards<p>

Disclaimer: not mine 

**Reviews are still love.**

_Death_

Death resides in Haven. It slumbers under the surface. It is not there to make choices or to solve troubles. It is there to do what it does, to work through its list. And to watch.

There is a woman living here, who has eluded Death for centuries. It was supposed to come for her, but somehow she never made the list. There was sickness, the first time it came for her. But there were men who made Death a deal. The woman was allowed to live, only not in this town. The men fooled death, by bringing her back when it wasn't looking and sending her away again before it could claim her.

Death punished the men for this, by needlessly stretching their hour of need or by fastening it so they'd never see it coming. In its haste, Death did something unusual. It looked at the woman in her second and third and fourth life, and felt sorry for her. So she lives until this day.

_The Magician_

Long ago, when Haven was still what it was, a new town in a new country, a magician lived there.

The Magician owned a vessel that used to go back and forth to random places, and bring back all kind of magic goods that people needed and asked for. Some were everyday magic like flour or salt or pepper. Some were rare. Like the dark green dress he once brought back for the Rasmussen girl. Everyone knew of his love for her, and they also knew that the girl did not return these feelings.

The Magician used to battle with Justice for her heart. In the end, neither The Magician nor Justice won , as the Rasmussen girl was taken from them. Until their dying day, long after they had married other women and lived new lives, they looked for her.

The day after The Magician died, the Rasmussen girl returned, and there was nobody left who had lived long enough to remember who she really was.

_Temperance_

Before Temperance came to this little coastal town, there was no balance.

The people were still suffering from events from not so long ago, when a brown haired woman came, upset it, and then left it without restoring it. Temperance has never quite forgiven Lucy Ripley for it. Lucy used to be good at balancing things, going back and forth between her bitter, grumpy Chief and her rugged, handsome lover without the other ever knowing about it.

Then one morning, she had gone and not returned. Temperance knew that this was how the story usually went, but she did not agree with it.

Twenty seven years later, she returns with a new name and without even realising, balance has begun to restore itself.

_The World_

The World thrives on prosperity, fullfillment, contentment.

It is never more pleased then when it hears wedding bells or the sound of a newborn baby crying. It takes pleasure in human satisfaction, as humans are quite bull headed about the definition of the word.

It sees that the messengers take pleasure in fishing and photography. They have been doing this for as The World has known them, from the moment they almost simultaneously entered the world. They are such fascinating opposites, light and dark, yet perfectly compatible, much like The World itself. Once, a woman came who brought the light over into the dark side. It was only a little flame, but it was enough. But the darker messenger became jealous and wanted the light back. So there was a rift. The World, in its eternal quest for prosperity, was faced with a choice.

So it looked at the fair haired messenger and the ways he loved the woman and the way he loved his brother. He decided that the messenger and the woman were not the star crossed lovers that were needed, however hard it found that decision. It decided to bank on the strength of brotherhood, of intertwined lives and the hope that one day, they'd find peace in that decision.

Thankfully, they did, but there is always a small crack in the whole, where something was taken and not returned.

_The Lovers_

Many lifetimes after Death granted life back to a young woman, it watches The Lovers sleep.

This is only their second night together, full of careful touching and hushed whispers. When they are sated, they tangle into each other. He holds her close, sometimes stroking her bare skin or combing through her hair. Death finds this fascinating, how human beings can tangle and lay in odd angles yet never complain afterwards.

Death remembers that other caveat in the deal, where it was agreed that the woman would be granted the rest of her human life once the curse was broken. A life where she would marry and have children and receive all the love she's lived without for so long.

In that moment, Death decides to leave The Lovers alone for a while, maybe a good long while. It has diligently watched over her for so long, and perhaps because it feels that it has taken enough or that there's nothing to take here, it leaves the moon-lit bedroom. On its way out, it hits the windchimes outside, and it does not see the woman wake for a brief moment.


	9. Ohio

Title: Ohio

Author: MissForsythe

Summary: Nathan musing on the identity thing.

Disclaimer: Don't own nothing. Based on a "Ohio" by Peter Bradley Adams, which I also do not own.

Reviews: yes please.

___I'll call you Ohio_

_From a song I once heard sung_

_One I couldn't help but love_

He reads the names in the journal, everyone she's ever been. It dates back to well in the 1700's, sometimes only accompanied by a description, other personalities well documented. Prudence, Mary, Louise, Sarah, Lucy, Audrey. He watches as she appears in vague sepia photographs, moving right along to the picture he took with his phone last month.

And he imagines all those lifetimes, the men in the photographs. Men that she loved, men that she had to leave behind with broken hearts. He gently combs his fingers through her hair as she sleeps, and he wants to whisper her name.

Just for a second, he hesitates and the sound won't come.

_I'll call you Ohio_

_Cause it falls easy off the tongue_

_It falls easy as the road that you run_

It's breaking her, this identity thing. She has to fill out paperwork for some course up in Orono that she wants to take and she never gets past that first question where she has to fill out her full name. He watches as she fusses with the white out and as she crumples the paper and tosses it in the trash.

She storms out of the office, and he doesn't go after her.

Later that night, he finds her rummaging around her apartment. She's doing something to her dinner table, and she looks so very lost. They don't talk, and without prompting, he helps her until she's satisfied that the table is clean. He hugs her close and she cries into his shoulder.

_Hey there_

_Ohio, your mother needs you now_

_But say you'll meet me in your spring_

_Hold on Ohio, another chance will come around_

_So come sit with me_

_awhile before you leave_

One night, she dreams about her parents.

She sees her own eyes, and strawberry blonde hair, and where all the little things that make her come from. She sees a worried father and a caring mother, she sees another girl, maybe a year or so younger then her.

It makes her feel safe and loved in different way then she feels when she's with Nathan.

In her dream, her mother doesn't look like Lucy Ripley and doesn't look like a rock star. But there's something about her that she can't readily define. It's only later, when she wakes and the coffee machine won't co operate that it clicks.

She looked like something that her eight year self never realised.

Familiar. She looked familiar.

_And you don't have to live this way_

_anymore_

_No, they're telling you to stay_

The first time she feels at home in Haven, really at home, isn't when they throw her a birthday party or when she starts having poker nights at Duke's.

It's the first morning after her conversation with Agent Howard, about taking vacation time.

She doesn't do vacation, is always underway. She enjoys the feel of airports before take off, has a collection of hotel room soaps and shampoos (and one bathrobe, but that was an accident). But somehow, this decision seems like the first thing she's ever gotten right.

Maybe this town is weird, and maybe her new "partner" is broody and odd. But she keeps thinking that maybe that that's what she's been looking for. She can do weird, she can do broody.

She stops longing for travel and Boston and instead, starts to settle in.

_And you can't give them_

_what you give anymore_

_And it's ok_

_It's ok_

Somedays, she wishes everything wasn't so damn serious all the time.

Like when she and Nathan chase a man who can turn himself into the elements through the woods, and he makes them trip and land in a pit of mud. They lay side by side, and she starts giggling. Really, out of control giggling. Nathan is leaning on his elbow, looking at her like she's deranged.

He tells her she's crazy, and she rubs a handful of mud through his hair.

Later, when they get back to the Gull, the stairs are blocked so they have to go through the bar. Duke glares and they get cat calls and offers for drinks. They decline, opting for a joint shower and a bottle of Jack that she's hidden in the back of the fridge.

They find the suspect the next day, when he tries to sneak into the swimming pool changing rooms by turning himself to water. They arrest him for having them on a wild goose chase, the woods, the tripping, and for being a perv. In that order.

_Hey there_

_Ohio, come dance for me awhile_

_I know it's time for you to go_

_Don't stop Ohio, don't stop until you smile_

Nathan is a lousy, lousy dancer.

She knows because she watches him from her bed, as he moves around the kitchen making pancakes. She bites back a groan and tries to erase the images by hiding under the covers. Then she hears him sing along, and it's not a bad voice. A bit gravelly, no better or worse then the random singer songwriters on the radio.

The voice comes closer and gets under the sheets with her, wrapping it's arms around her and singing close to her ear. They entwine their fingers and their bodies, like dancing. Her favourite kind.

_And I'll watch you as you dance out the door_

Duke Crockers is not a man to believe in wishes and dreams. He doesn't believe in true love.

Until he met Audrey Parker, that is.

She compels and enthralls him, and he finds himself hopelessly drawn to her.

One night, when he comes up to her apartment to say goodnight, he hears her giggling in the bathroom, and he sees Nathan's jacket on the back of the chair. He listens to them chatter for a while, and then makes his exit, still compelled and enthralled and drawn.

She's made her choice, and he's too late.

_And you don't have to live this way anymore  
>No they're telling you to stay<em>

_And you can't give them what you give_

_Anymore_

One day, The Troubles end. Just end.

And she doesn't vanish into thin air. She wakes in Nathan's bed, when he's already gone to get ready.

She takes her time to do her hair and her make up, put on her dress.

The Gull is nicely decorated with lilacs and lilies and white roses, and they say their vows with the ocean steadily flowing outside the window.

_And it's ok_

_It's ok_


	10. Revenant

Title: Revenant

Author: MissForsythe

Summary: Four different ways that the story ended.

Disclaimer: Not mine, since Haven is still not running all year round.

Author's Notes: This is actually a rewrite of my first ever Haven fic, but I did so with current information in mind. I do not claim to know Sarah's actual surname, though.

_Be kind, review._

**Lucy Prudence Rasmussen**

To Lucy Prudence Rasmussen, life as she knew it was simple. It consisted of teaching Thaddeus how to say "I love you" in return for him teaching her how to cast a fishing rod, and the thought that someday soon, she'd be his wife. They'd looked longingly at the big houses near the shore with a grand view of the ocean beyond.

But then life changed.

The fortune teller and her daughter, the fire, the revenge. Thaddeus had hidden her in the lighthouse, high up from where he thought they wouldn't find her. But they came anyway.

As the carriage rattled down the path towards the edge of town, she saw him standing there, unable to move. She screamed, but no sound came out. He numbly stared at his injured hands, as though he didn't feel them.

Taking a life for a life, they told her. Hers in exchange for the girl that died. First they cursed with her the power to heal, and now they were taking her away. She reached into her skirt pocket and found the locket that Thaddeus and Ezra gave her for her birthday.

When the sun rose the next day, Lucy Prudence Rasmussen woke in a strange bed in a strange place. And the dream of wedding rings and everything yet to come began to slowly fade away.

**Sarah Jensen**

Sarah is fearless.

She has proven this point many times by jumping off every high surface she encountered. Even the nuns at the orphanage did not know which prayer to use for this peculiar character trait. But she likes the thrill. That moment before her brain shuts down and she's acting purely on instinct telling her to jump. She's stood on many a high cliff during her time in Haven. On her own, or with Vince and Dave standing on either side of her.

But when they come for her, mere hours after she's fired the gun at Abe Crocker, her stomach wrenches and turns. She's been on this cliff before. Only there's no water down below to cushion the fall and there will be nothing rushing through her other then pure fear.

**Lucy Ripley**

Her fingers move over the keys of their own volition.

They know exactly how to extract the melody, how to connect the notes in her mind. She softly hums along as she's doing it. Garland once told her of malevolent sea creatures that are drawn to shore if they hear a particular melody. He only told her to ease her mind about one of their cases, but now she can not stop thinking about it. He'd even hummed it, that particular melody which she's now playing on a piano in a desolate hotel lobby.

The doors creak and she hears familiar footsteps approach. She can smell him, aftershave and motor oil and cigarettes. A scent she used to wake up to, one that drew her in and made her put her heart before her mind.

"Hello Lucy."

She looks up at Simon Crocker, and painfully realises that her fingers have stopped moving and that she already can not remember how the melody goes.

**Audrey Parker**

He loves her.

He asked her out.

He'll be here, later. They'll eat pancakes and talk about Lucy and drink white wine out on the porch if the weather clears up. Maybe they'll just skip the food and the talking because she really doesn't want to do any of that. She wants to kiss him again, to explore this touching thing, to see him react to her.

She checks to make sure that everything is in order when a knock interrupts her incessant stream of thought.

"Nathan, you're early."

He's here, he's really here.

She takes a deep breath and turns the doorknob, and the last thing she thinks before the darkness comes is that Nathan is always punctual, and never early or never late for anything.


	11. Momentum

Title: Momentum

Author: MissForsythe

Summary: A before, an after, an inbetween, and a here and now.

Disclaimer: Yeah, not mine.

Pairing: None specific

Author's Notes: Since we're now in the long haul for season 3, I figured the series needed an update. Life has been insane so I haven't had the chance until now.

_**The inbetween**_

_He gets a call in the middle of the night, a womans voice calling his name. __Clearly the first two times and panicky and muffled the other two. __He counts to five and throws back the covers. He wonders if she willingly seeks out trouble or trouble seeks her out._

_The first thing he notices when he bursts into her tiny motel room is the open window, and the bundle with feet sticking out underneath it. He rolls it over and starts slicing at the threads with his pocket knife. The process seemingly takes forever, and he hears himself release a sigh of relief when he finds the cloth of her towel._

_He pulls her to him, as she pants against his shoulder. He picks her up and puts her to bed, and before he leaves he curls a lock of her hair around his finger._

_He's too agitated to notice the slight tingle on the pad of his fingertip, until it disappears and he forgets that it was there to begin with._

_**The before**_

_It started as such an ordinary day. Yet when Nathan Wournos woke up that morning, there was a still small voice telling him that things were about to be turned upside down. __Kind of like knowing that a long wanted wish was going to come true. _

_Maybe it was in the water, maybe it was in the air. But maybe it was just dumb luck that he came across her first._

_**The after**_

_Lucy Ripley lives in an ordinary house in an ordinary neighbourhood on the waterfront._

_It's all so ordinary that it makes Audrey laugh. She wonders if people about to meet their unknown biological parents feel this way. Nervous and scared and already geared up for disappointment. __But she won't allow herself disappointment because that would mean everything is in vain._

_She's promised to return, to share her answers. To move forward in a new and undiscovered direction._

_She touches her fingers to her lips. There's still a little bit of him left on them, and that's all the mental support she could wish for._

**The here and now**

_The first thing she feels when she wakes up is the burning on her chest. She looks down and sees the bruising. She's not anywhere she recognises, she only knows that her chest is burning and that Nathan will go out his mind if he finds her apartment empty. And underneath that, her deepest fear that she'll be erased and he'll forget to find her._

_The realisation dawns on her so fast that she bursts into tears. She doesn't notice the dried flowers laying next to her and the man watching from the doorway. _

„_It's ok now, Lucy-love, I'll take care of you."_

_Through her tears, she finds a faint recognition in that voice and passes out again._

_He holds the gun to Duke's head, all anger and pent up frustration. _

_What he should be seeing is the confusion and the fact that Duke has no idea what is going on, but the rage only allows him to clutch the gun tighter. He counts down, his finger on the trigger. _

"_I'm done counting."_

_A shot rings out, and after the echo fades away, Duke is still on the ground and Nathan is still standing there._

"_.. Both of yous"_

_A woman has appeared in the doorway, seemingly out of nowhere. All they can do is stare at her and she lowers her own gun and walks across the room and smacks them both upside the head. _

_It's her and it's not her, it's Lucy Ripley as they remember her. And they do as she says, because no matter what she calls herself, they have absolute faith in her and faith is the only thing that keeps them going. It's the only thing that will make sure they find her in one piece._


	12. Undisclosed

Title: Undisclosed

Author: MissForsythe

Summary: It lingers over them, like a sword of Damocles ready to fall and destroy them both at any given moment.

Disclaimer: Don't own nothing, except a lot of patience and a creative mind.

Pairing: It's not a threesome fic, per se, but it has hints of both Nathan/Audrey and Duke/Audrey.

Author's Notes: September, you guys. You'll need something to hold you over till then.

_They don't speak of it._

After the shot rings out and hurts Duke's eardrums and leaves a mark on the wooden floor, they stand there like statues. There's a tattoo, THE tattoo. And Nathan isn't seeing or feeling it.

_They don't speak of it._

They find Audrey in a cabin in the backwoods of Tuwiowok Bluff, bound to a bed and surrounded by smoke. It takes effort, combined effort, to cut the sturdy ropes and carry her out. They lay her out on the grass, and they call her name until she finally takes a big gasp of air. It's the most beautiful sound they ever heard.

Nathan holds her to him, and he can tell something has changed in the way they go about with each other. It's deeper, intimate. It starts to dawn on Duke that the lacy scrap of fabric she's wearing was probably meant for him. He tries to ignore the pang somewhere in the depth of his soul.

In the orange glow of the fire, he can still see the tattoo. Fainter now, but definitely there.

_They don't speak of it._

They bring her back to her apartment, strip her naked , check her for injuries and clean her up.

She's still not fully conscious, but when Duke tries to walk away, he feels that tiny hand of hers around his wrist. So he stays.

It's nothing sexual, and it's not about them both wanting her. But they'll never actually admit that it is. Nathan picks her up his arms, and her fingers tighten around his arm. If Duke didn't know any better, he'd swear he'd heard a slight hiss.

They lay her on the bed, and he sits with her while Nathan goes in search of something for her to wear. She opens her eyes, briefly, and smiles at him. He places a kiss on her forehead, leaves it to linger for a moment until Nathan comes back with the clothes.

He walks away, because if he stays, Nathan will have to use that gun again.

The last thing he sees before he turns the corner ist hat Audrey is refusing the clothes, and that she pulls him close. And by the heaving shoulders, he can tell that Nathan Wournos is crying.

_They don't speak of it._

The months go by, and it lingers over them like a sword of Damocles. Ready to fall and destroy them both at any given moment.

He pretends not to stare when Nathan wears a short sleeved shirt, looking for any sign of the tattoo which has now completely faded.

If he tries, he can tell himself that he imagined it. That it was his mind playing tricks on him.

But he didn't and it's not. And they still won't speak of it.


	13. She's not there

Title: She's not there

Author: MissForsythe

Summary: A little Vince-introspective

Disclaimer: I don't own the song or the show. I just thought it was fitting song to use.

Pairing: Vince/Sarah, mostly.

Author's Notes: Based on She's not there by The Zombies (or so Google tells me, though it was Neil Diamond).

_Well no one told me about her the way she lied  
>Well no one told me about <em>_her how many people cried  
>But it's too late to say you're sorry<br>How would I know why should I care  
>Please don't bother tryin' to find her<br>She's not there_

The first time Vince Teagues meets Sarah Jensen, is the first time a girl has actually initiated a conversation with him. She's standing in the doorway, with her suitcase and her blue raincoat and he honestly believes she just fell from the sky.

She's looking to rent the space above the Herald office, and he can barely get the words to form properly as he shows her around.

****

_Well let me tell you 'bout the way she looked  
>The way she'd act and the colour of her hair<br>Her voice was soft and cool  
>Her eyes were clear and bright<br>But she's not there_

Months go by, and by first snowfall, he can not imagine life without her.

She works at the local bank, and on her afternoon off she edits the articles due for tomorrows issue. Sometimes they have cocktails in the middle of the afternoon, because she thinks it's the chic thing to do. They fall into a comfortable routine.

When the snow melts, Dave returns to Haven after graduating college and it feels like the rug is pulled from underneath his feet. Soon, the routine changes and the three of them drink cocktails while he bickers with his brother over silly childhood things.

Dave brought The Troubles with him. Soon, they are everywhere and anywhere. And Sarah gets caught right in the middle. It escalates and they are powerless to stop it.

One rainy Friday in September, he finds she's gone away and won't be coming back.

****

_Well no one told me about her, what could I do  
>Well no one told me about her, though they all knew<br>But it's too late to say you're sorry  
>How would I know, why should I care<br>Please don't bother tryin' to find her  
>She's not there<em>

A day becomes a month, and a month becomes a year. And then one day, she falls from the sky again. Calls herself Lucy Ripley. He wants to stay away, needs to stay away. But he doesn't.

He tells himself that what he did was right, that perhaps it would alter the outcome.

Telling her to run, to leave the first life she's ever felt at home in broke his heart. But when he drops her off at the bus stop, and watches as she runs through the pouring rain towards the waiting bus, it is the right thing.

It's been thirty years, and he still bleeds a little every day.

__

_Well let me tell you 'bout the way she looked  
>The way s<em>_he'd act and the colour of her hair  
>Her voice was soft and cool<br>Her eyes were clear and bright  
>But she's not there<em>

Twenty seven years go by, and when spring approaches he gets anxious. He tracks down the article about the Colorado Kid murder, tries to remember the little things about Sarah (mid afternoon cocktails, knock off Chanel perfume) and Lucy (needed to know everything, always).

_But it's too late to say you're sorry  
>How would I know, why should I care<br>Please don't bother tryin' to find her  
>She's not there<em>

The third time she falls from the sky, she calls herself Audrey Parker, says she's an FBI agent. He recognises her immediately though. Before they turn into the street, Dave snipes at him about not scaring her.

She a tough cookie, this one. But he needs to tell her, because he's waited four decades and one day. They hand her the article, and from that moment on they've got her. He plans to make her stay, whatever the cost. He'd die to make her stay.

_****_

_Well let me tell you 'bout the way she looked  
>The way she'd act and the colour of her hair<br>Her voice was soft and cool  
>Her eyes were clear and bright<br>But she's not there_

One summer morning, she storms into the office, slams the picture of Dave and Sarah down on Dave's desk and demands answers. He's surprised he can not think of a single one. So he shows her the ring. Just a simple gold band, designed to bind people in love. He wanted oh so much to give it to Sarah, all those years ago. He forgot it the night he took Lucy away.

She takes the ring, and in her hurry to leave puts it in her pocket.

Then she's gone and he's still not forgiven, and it hurts.

**Reviews are love. One month and 20 days to go!**


	14. In Motion

Title: In Motion

Author: MissForsythe

Summary: How that first morning might go…

Disclaimer: I don't own the the show.

Nathan likes to watch her move.

On their first morning together, she wakes up first.

"_Fingers on his bare back, moving in random patterns."_

He's on his stomach, his head resting on his arms. He's still half asleep, but somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind, he remembers that this is what soothing feels like.

"_A slight kiss on his temple and fingers rubbing his hair."_

He pretends to sleep while she moves around the room, making coffee and setting a the breakfast table. She's wearing very little, covered by a long hooded sweater. He has no idea why she"s wearing hood up inside, but damn if he cares.

"_She sitting next to him, watching."_

He pushes himself up on his forearms. The world is still spinning, but she's here. Eyeing him curiously as he turns around and reaches for her. She lays down beside he thinks he can hear her thoughts. The way her body seems to speak for her.

"_Take what you need, it's yours."_

So he does.

Audrey likes to watch him sleep.

"_Nice even breathing under her fingers in the dead of morning."_

He looks so peaceful, sleeping like that. She wonders how much actual sleep he's gotten since his affliction came back. How he could, if he could not feel the warmth of a blanket on a cold night. Or the coolness of the night air in the summer.

"_His eyelids flutter, but he doesn't wake."_

She gets up, because sleeping in has never been her thing. Not even on this morning which she's imagined and dreamed a million different ways. She puts on her long hooded sweater and pads towards the kitchen.

"_He's awake now, and she knows he's watching."_

She sips her coffee and lazily scratches an itch by her hip. She sits down beside him and observes him. He turns around, leaning on his forearms. She sips her coffee as he looks at her. Still a little weary with sleep, but bright and tender all the same.

_She lays down next to him, wordlessly asking him to give her what she needs._

So he does.


	15. Miniatures

**Title: **Miniature Fics

**Author: **MissForsythe

**Disclaimer: **Not mine, sadly

**Ankle**

It's a shiny little thing. A thin sliver of silver with a tiny star pendant.

Her boys bought it for her to cheer her up after a rough week, and they presented it to her in a shoddily wrapped jewelry box.

It's only an anklet, but she's never had one before and for a long time, it's the best present anyone has ever given her.

**First-Light**

The long night where they don't know where she is finally ends.

And they do find her, grimy and annoyed. Not dead and not memory wiped.

At first light, they come back to the Gull. She falls asleep against Nathans chest, and he can't stop looking at her. Wrapped safely in his arms, and he's not planning on ever letting her out of his sight again.

It's not how he wanted this morning to go, but it's a morning he gets to spend with her. And he's grateful for that.

He tries not to think of other ways it could have ended.

**Once **

Once upon a time, a boy met a girl. They fell in love, but then fate intervened and took the girl away.

He didn't search for her, since he knew it would be in vain. He longed for her, day in day out.

But when fate brought her back, she did not remember him or their time together.

Once upon a time, a boy met a girl. He wasn't in love with her and she wasn't the slightest bit in love with him.

But he was fascinated by her, none the less.

The boy grew old, bitter even. He never forgave her leaving, even when she got dropped back in his lap unexpectedly.

Once upon a time, a lonely boy met a lonely girl. They became friends, then lovers.

Fate tried to intervene. But he did something the other boys did not. He fought back for her.

It's why she's still here, it's why fate does not come inbetween them anymore.


	16. Miniatures II

**Title: **Miniatures II

**Author: **MissForsythe

**Disclaimer: **Not mine, sadly

**Anchor**

It's nearing the end of the afternoon when she finally wakes up.

He's hovering over her, waiting. After a few seconds, she slowly opens her eyes, takes in her surroundings. His bedroom, his bed, him. He leans down and places a soft kiss on her lips, so soft that anything else will break her into a million pieces.

She reaches for him, wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him down on her.

He's anchoring her, with his fingers and his body and his voice. And it's safe and it's nice.

Later, when he's fallen back asleep, she'll stroke his messy hair and his scars and perhaps wonder why anyone would want to take this away from her.

**Echo**

It's another way of thinking about it.

Not a copy, not a re incarnation, but an echo.

Maybe if the townsfolk shout hard enough for help, she is created. Out of thin air, maybe.

She wonders about the original her. The person that came before Lucy and Sarah and the people before that. Did that woman choose this fate, was she forced? Did she commit a crime?

Whatever the case, her persistant echo has gotten the town through the Troubles over and over again. But this time around, it's time for the echo to fade away.

**Disappear**

Lucy Ripley stands on the dock, looking out at the ocean as it steadily flows beneath the wooden slats she's standing on. He's behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She leans back against him and they stand like that for the longest time.

"Love you, Luce."

She won't cry, won't break, won't anything. She'll disappear.

She thinks about the funeral, about the plan they spent the last few days devising. In the Herald office, in his room at the inn.

Then it becomes too much, and he cradles her as she cries.


	17. Attribution

Title: Attribution  
>Author's Notes: So I've been away from the fandom and just now got caught up. The below is what really stuck with me from the most recent episode.<p>

It's a perfect lie.

"We're okay."

The words hang in your head, clinging and biting.

You tell yourself, he tells himself. You tell each other.

He eats his cereal and listens to you ramble, but you see it in his eyes. When he says the words, you can hear he doesn't mean them. You don't know him anymore. You don't know why he can not say what he wants to say, why he has that thing on his arm, why he doesn't come to you anymore.

"Okay".

Then you make yourself walk away, because another second and then you won't be responsible for the words as they leave your mouth.

"Why are you doing this?"

You're at the point of no return now.

She's nervous, antsy. And you kiss her and you pour everything into it. Your grief, your longing, your lies. All the bad things. You don't feel her lips or her hands, and you wonder how you'll fake your way through whatever happens next. You remember what Jess once told you, that it's in your head. You can enjoy this, if you just try hard enough.

You pull away, she's still a little shaky as she watches you leave the bar.

When you get in your truck, you feel powerful, energetic. It only last a moment, and then the words you lied resound in your head.

"We're okay."

No, they're not. They're not okay if they won't talk, or if neither of them wants to meet the other halfway. Truth is, you wonder if there is a halfway point in this mess you've created. And if you've just strayed even further away from it by your actions just now.


	18. Asunder (Together Apart)

Title: Asunder (Together Apart)

Author: MissForsythe

Rating: K

Summary: Kind what I wished would have happened at the end of „Sarah". I wasn't wholly satisfied with the editing in this episode, and if I weren't hopped up on painkillers, I'd write a wordy rant about it. Anyway, this was inspired by Duke's surprise at not having cell phone service in the 1950's.

Disclaimer: Not mine. I just write the before and the afters for your reading pleasure.

_**True friendship isn't about being inseparable, it's about being separated and nothing changes.**_

_**(random Facebook quote.)**_

Sometimes she wonders how far she has to push him before he finally grasps it. What she has to do. If she has to start leaving the office when he comes in or vice versa. If she should quit her job and enjoy her last days in her apartment, with her books and her solitude.

Deep down, she knows he's doing this for her, for them. For a future that won't happen.

But then he gets thrown back into time, and comes back telling her he met Sarah.

He doesn't tell her much, but she can tell the experience did something to him. He seems happier, more resolved. It makes her curious. It makes her wish they weren't so at odds. The Nathan who was her best friend and her partner would have spent three hours and then some telling her every little detail. The Nathan that is steadily slipping further away from her does not.

He gets in his car and drives away, possibly to be with her, or with the Guard. She tries not to be jealous.

Surprisingly, he shows up at her apartment later that night.

They argue, because that's all they're capable of these days. Then the words come out, the ones that she promised she'd never say because they're the hardest ones to get out.

"_I can't leave you with a broken heart, Nathan, I won't"_

He stares at her, dumbfounded. And then she breaks.

She slumps down onto the couch, her head in her hands. She feels his hands, big and strong and manly, across her back. He's pulling her to him, so close she thinks she can crawl under his skin. He cradles her, for an hour, maybe two. The tears stop coming eventually, leaving her exhausted and thirsty.

He tells her to go clean her face, that she looks horrible. He smirks, and she only makes it to the bathroom in time to throw up the remains of her sorrow. He doesn't say anything, just crouches down beside her and hands her a glass of water.

They sit on the bathroom floor, side by side. His arm against hers.

"_I had a baby, Nathan. I had a baby and I don't remember it. And he died and I don't remember that either. "_

The not remembering isn't the hardest part. It's the fact that she only had him for a short time, at the beginning of his life, and perhaps at the end of it. Having met mothers who had lost their children, or bore witness to it, she's pretty sure that the not remembering is a relief.

They sit in silence for a while, and she can hear his breath. In and out, steadily in and out.

She closes her eyes, and leans against his shoulder.

„_I have to show you something."_

He gets up and walks into the living room, and it takes her a few minutes to gather her courage and follow his lead.

He's sitting at her kitchen table, and he's connected his phone to her laptop. She sighs and is about to turn around, when she hears a familiar voice. Her voice. A little higher, a little more energetic, but still her own voice. Nathan turns the laptop around, and she sees herself. Sarah.

She's peering into the camera with a mix of suspicion and amusement in her voice. She's asking something about a Russian spy device, apparently she's got quite the hang up about Russian things in general.

„_It's just a camera, don't worry."_

She smiles, and now she's just plain macking on him. Audrey feels her cheeks turn red, and she remains at a safe distance where he can't see it up close.

„_What do you think of the name Audrey?"_

"_Like the movie star? Because it's such a movie star name. I must have seen Roman Holiday a million times when it first came out. Sooooooo romantic."_

„_Do you like movies?"_

„_Oh yes. What else is a girl supposed to entertain herself with after a night shift?"_

„_Do you like…books?"_

„_Oh yes. I like the ones with the scary monsters, like Frankenstein."_

The questions go on for a while, but it comes down to the fact that really, she doesn't change no matter what she looks like. She's been inching closer until Nathan pulls her down on his lap and they sit in the dark of her apartment, until the screen goes black.

„_Told you I'd do whatever it takes."_

She doesn't say anything, just crashes her lips down on his.


	19. Interludes

Fic: Interludes

Author: MissForsythe

Disclaimer: not mine, sadly.

**Sarah**

I met a man today.

He's so handsome, Rock Hudson really has nothing on him.

He told me I was incredible. Told me I was special.

We kissed in the sunlight, and he told me things about the Haven that he is from. I lay on his chest and listened. He even hummed me a song he tells me is very successful.

He told me to kill a man. And I did.

Then he disappeared and left me feeling strong and wanting.

**Lucy**

I met a boy today.

He's only seven, but I feel like I know his big blue eyes. Garland asks me to watch him one night when the local babysitter isn't available. He's an easy child, a quiet one. He plays with his cars, makes up elaborate stories for them and pays me no attention.

I tucked him in, sang him a little song that I didn't know I knew the words to.

When I was about to turn off his bedroom light, he looked at me and he told me he'd see me again.

Then he closed his eyes, and his words left me confused and unsettled.

**Audrey**

I met fate today.

He came to my apartment, with a bottle of wine and a box of pancake mix. He told me he at least owed me dinner. So I watched as he poured batter and flipped the pancakes up in the air. I stood close against him, his hand supporting mine as he taught me the right way to do it.

We kissed in the dim light, and we talked. We spoke all those words that had been hanging in the air for two months. I lay in his arms, and listened to his voice. I dreamt of a beach, of a dress and of him.

In the morning, I held him in my arms, hummed a annoying popular song that I knew he secretly liked.

He opened his sleepy blue eyes and told me he loved me.

His words left feeling safe and content, and with a desire to fight with all I have to hear them every morning for the rest of my life.


	20. Triptich

**Title: **Triptich

**Summary: **Post 3.11 musings.

**Disclaimer**: Don't own nothing per usual.

**Duke**

It didn't mean anything.

You were drunk, she was drunk and sad. You kissed her and she kissed you back.

It ended before it actually became anything you'd regret in the long run. So she ran and you tried to drown out the fact that it happened in the first place.

Now, a month later, it's not so innocuous anymore.

It haunts you, and you don't know why.

You don't doubt that she loves you, because she does, but not LIKE that. Not sweet, devoted puppy love like she has for Nathan. It's in your dreams, that kiss. You wonder if it haunts hers.

She and Claire ask you questions, trying to determine if you're not a psycho killer, and when they ask you for a secret, you don't hesitate. You could have used that time that Nathan got drunk after being fired or what happened the first time you met.

But the fire rages, and it spills out of you. She's not rattled, like you hoped she would be.

And she still only thinks of imminent death and that godforsaken barn.

Deep down, you don't think you'll ever be able to forgive her for that if she does vanish the day after tomorrow.

**Nathan**

She knows you better then you know yourself.

It's why you reach out for her, while telling the story of that kiss.

You want to draw her into that memory, because to her, it was and still is something she merely did to comfort you. It seems to take forever, but she reaches for your hand and her fingers brush over yours. It's something you know you could get very used to if offered the opportunity.

Not if, when. You tell yourself that over and over again. If won't do, ever.

You tell the story, and she gets that look in her eyes and you know you're in the clear.

Claire barges in with the fact the skin walker doesn't steal Troubles, but she sounds miles away. All you're focused on is her tiny hand in yours. Then it stops and the moment passes and she lets go.

Later, alone in your office, you wonder if you should have told her about the promise of pancakes instead.

**Audrey**

He waits for you, outside the hospital room.

He holds your hand, and you marvel at how wonderfully it seems to fit.

You sit closer, and you don't let go.

Later, when you've told him everything, perhaps he'll hold your hand walking out of the hospital.

Maybe he won't stop trying to save you, and perhaps that's not quite such a bad thing.


	21. Repose

**Title: **Repose

**Summary: ** Nathan, after the inevitable happens.

**Disclaimer**: Don't own nothing per usual. I am diligently staying away from the spoiler bars, like a good fangirl. But I've seen nothing (per promo material, anyway) that says we're getting a happy ending this season.

**Repose**

The week after Audrey vanishes, taking the Troubles and his heart with her, he takes a leave of absence as Chief of Police.

He spent the last five days in bed, staring at the empty left side of it. The pillow is still dented from her head resting on it. The sheets are rumpled, there's a thin plaid he wrapped her in after making love to her. He held her and made her laugh and back then he still had hope that there would be other nights like this.

He packs a suitcase and gets in his car, and leaves Haven behind him.

He drives for days, through small towns and busier cities.

Sometimes he'll go into the local dive bar and drink himself into a stupor. He'll wake up hungover and head achey and he just wants it to go away. Somehow, the logic that he now does have to do things like take painkillers and bandage wounds has not filtered through.

After a while, the sharp ache in his chest dulls but it never leaves him. Not even in his sleep.

Three months later, he feels his arm aching.

He looks down at his arm, at the tattoo. At the stick figures guarding the corners.

He wonders who is protecting the Troubled now. The thought comes out of nowhere, as though a small voice is whispering it in his ear.

He takes another drink, and smashes the bottle against the wall of his motel room.

That voice has haunted him before. He remembers that time right after graduating college, when it called him. In his dreams, it would sometimes take shape. Once a man coming at him with a heavy belt, once a little boy with copper hair and big blue eyes. Once a beautiful woman in a floral dress.

Fifteen minutes later, he finds himself packing up his dirty laundry and checking out of his decrepit motel room and driving back to Haven for 16 hours straight.

The voice is appeased, he thinks, since it remains still during the journey back to Bangor.

His stomach churns at the thought of home without her, but deep down, something sparks. It soothes him, he's pretty sure he just remembered that that's what hope feels like.

Six months later, he responds to a domestic disturbance call. As he's driving down the road, he finds himself pulling over and staring up at the sky.

He can hear the voice, loud and clear now.

"_Soon now"_


	22. Elegy

Elegy

_Nathan Wournos is five and a half years old when he goes to his first funeral._

_His father makes him dress in a too warm suit and tries to choke him with a too big tie._

_They walk behind the coffin to the Good Shepherd Church. He fixes his gaze on the flowers adorning the lid. Focuses on how white they are._

_It's a hot August day, and there are people stopping to stare as the hearse passes by. _

_Nathan wants to run away, but the Chief is holding his hand in a tight grip so he can't go anywhere._

_He sees Duke Crocker and his father standing outside Benji's. He doesn't like Duke, not really._

_But he's the only one not looking at him like he's some sort of freak._

_It's the one good thing out all the things that happened that day._

_Nathan's mom died._

_It's all over town, that the Garland Wournos' beloved wife finally lost her battle against that awful disease that no doctor can cure. And yet, Duke seems to be the only one who remembered that death means sadness. The teacher at school warned them to not bother Nathan with questions too much, that he would tell about it when he was ready._

_That moment never really comes._

_On Saturday morning, his father takes him out for ice cream. Duke, at five, already has a good grasp of knowing when there's something different about the town._

_There's a big shiny car rounding the corner, with the Chief and Nathan following close behind it._

„_Say goodbye to Mrs. Wournos, Duke."_

_Nathan is staring at him, and he waves._

_From that day on, they are bound together. In a small comfort and a small wave._

At thirty four, Nathan loses everything.

He only gets up in the morning because Dwight makes sure that he does.

The first few months, he auto pilots through life. Sometimes he'll go back to the hill where he last saw them. He'll sit there for hours on end, talking to himself, keeping vigil for their return.

Then, one day, he doesn't.

He runs into Hannah Driscoll at the supermarket, and even though he lets her cook him dinner and occasionally keep him company on the hillside, he never lets her in.

The townsfolk worry about him, he knows.

They have that look in their eyes when he's walking through Main Street. Like they consider him a little boy lost. They never ask him about Audrey, never about Duke. Don't know how to. Just like they didn't know what to say to him when his mother died.

Late at night, when he's had enough scotch to drown out the memories, he hides his head in hands and cries.

Duke doesn't know what this is.

He went after her, because the reckless part of him wanted to.

But the main reason is that he didn't want her to be alone this time.

He thinks of Nathan often. If he's okay, how many years have passed by for him while none seem to pass for them. He tries not to imagine all the possible scenarios they might come back to. Tries not to imagine the one where Nathan never got over the loss.

He looks over at Audrey, in a foetal position in the corner. Her fever is getting worse.

There's a rumbling, and then he feels the barn steadies itself.

The doors open, and he can smell the ocean.

He picks Audrey up off the floor, and tells her that they're home.

Three years after Nathan Wournos lost everything, the phone rings at 3 am.

The hillside is lit by blue and red lights and the Barn stands proudly in the exact same spot it disappeared from.

Across town, a passing driver notices two men sitting in the middle of the road, holding on to a bundled blanket. They look up at him in fear, and the driver almost feels his heart stop when he recognises them.

"_Please, help us."_

And so it begins all over again.


	23. Elegy (2)

**Elegy part II**

_Once upon a time, in a small town in Maine, there lived a doctor._

_The doctor and his wife and their young daughter had come to Haven on a big ship, in the hopes of a better future. __So that their daughter would grow up in an untarnished environment, where she could breathe easier. But they did not take into account that foreign lands also bring foreign climates. The little girl did not live to see the first spring in her new homeland._

_Wrecked by sadness, the doctor and his wife grew apart. She stared out the window, and nothing could rouse her from her stasis. __She watched as he left for the woods every morning. Her pale face looking forlorn behind the snow tarnished window. _

_One morning, while out searching for firewood, he ends up in an unfamiliar clearing._

_To his surprise, he finds a barn there. Carefully checking that he is not trespassing, he walks around the wooden building, feels the grain of the wood. To his surprise, there is no snow on the roof of it, nor surrounding it on the ground. The double doors are heavy and won't give, no matter how hard he pushes. _

_Just when he's about to walk away, he hears a slight crackle in the snow. He aims his shotgun in the direction of the noise, but instead of a fox he finds a little girl standing there. She can't be older then two or three. She has fine blonde hair and big blue eyes. Nor the cold nor the shotgun seem to phase her. He approaches her carefully, and she eyes him curiously as he does. He notices that she's wearing little other then a dress made out of a rag, and that her tiny feet are bare. _

The beeping is consistent, proving that Audrey Parker is alive.

Her fever is high, and the doctors have trouble getting it down. They tell him that other then the fever, there's no real physical cause for it. Duke sits by her side, wondering why no one has called Nathan yet. Maybe they have, he's sure he asked a nurse to do so at some point.

Her hand is warm, he can feel the bones under the thin layer of skin.

He's adamantly refused to get checked out himself, not wanting to be away from her for even a second. He watches her eyes flutter, but they don't open.

_The doctor decided to take the little girl home._

_He carried her through the snowy forest, wrapped securely in a blanket on his back._

_The little hut where the doctor and his wife lived was cold and dark by the time they reached it. His wife was already asleep, even though night had not yet fallen. The little girl had by then fallen asleep asleep as well, and he placed her carefully in the hand carved crib he had made for his own daughter. _

_The next morning, the doctor's wife was roused by a child's giggle. For the first time in what felt like eternity she got out of bed to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She found her husband at the breakfast table, feeding little bits of oatmeal to a blonde little thing giggling like mad at his train impersonation._

_He tells his wife the story of the clearing and the barn, and that God had seen fit to give them another child. A child he had named Lucy Prudence Rasmussen._

Nathan arrives at the hospital three hours after the ambulance brought them in. He finds James in the waiting room, staring into space. It's only when Nathan sits down beside him that he reacts, in disbelief and fear. For a moment, Nathan realises that James won't remember him or the hour that they spent together in the Barn.

She's laying in a hospital bed, and she looks so tiny and frail.

Duke is beside the bed, holding on to her hand.

He looks up, and for the first time since he's known Duke, he looks defeated.

_Lucy Prudence Rasmussen grows up into a precocious child._

_Living with the doctor and his wife, in their cabin the woods, she leads a happy little life._

_The year after she came to live with them, another child was born. __A little girl the doctor and his wife name Virginia Mae. The doctor, still reeling from the darkness that the death of his first daughter left behind, is pleased to come home to such happy little girls every night. __But most of all, to his wife who is smiling again._

_But the doctor doesn't know that his wife is afraid._

_That every time she takes the girls for a walk in the woods, she searches for a barn where he said he found one and only finds leaves and trees instead. Over time, it becomes a fixture, a fear. It haunts her dreams. It appears and takes her children away, leaving only the cold lifeless body of her first child behind._

The sun is setting over the hospital.

Nathan notices because it pricks his skin. It's warm and comforting and yet it's not.

The beeping slowly invades his conscience. He looks up at her sleeping face, and her hand under his. Duke, on the other side, is still fast asleep. He feels her hand, still warm but not as dangerously as it was last night. She's making a soft noise in her sleep, as though she's trying to say something.

The day passes and her fever comes and goes, still.

O_ne day, when Lucy is about nineteen, the nightmare truly happens._

_It starts with a rumour that the apple vendor tells her. About a barn that appeared overnight on the outskirts of town. It doesn't seem to belong to anyone, and he's heard that witches put it there. __The doctor's wife runs home, that ice cold fear finding its way into her chest. _

_She finds Lucy feeding the horse, while her fiancé helps her groom the animal._

_Even though they look at her strangely, she never explains why she's so flushed and frightened._

_The rumours do that for her._

It takes a while, but eventually they find that whenever the three of them are in the room, the fever goes down. When one of them leaves the room, it spikes. Once, they go down to the cafetaria for something to eat, and when they return she is spasming wildly against the sheets. It's only when he starts to whisper soothing words that she stops and her body goes limp.

After the third drug the doctors administer her, he's had enough.

She's going home, and she's going home now.

The first meteor strikes a week after the Barn has appeared.

_The doctor's wife is in Lucy's bedroom, helping her with trying on her wedding dress for the first time when the light and the noise thunder over them. __She looks at her daughter, with her pristine white dress and the lilies in her hair and lets fate do what it's supposed to do. _

_She lies, telling Lucy that she knows where the meteor struck. __Lucy, always curious, immediately wants to go see it. Ginny looks at her with that distrustful look in her eyes. She starts unbuttoning the dress, but her mother stops her. __The sisters hug, and their mother almost changes her mind. _

The apartment over the Gull is dark and dusty, from three years of disuse, but he's left everything the way it was. They lay her on the bed, thinking about their next step. They were being heroic when they decided to take her home, but now that they're here they realise that they're basically living on an idle hope. But they've decided to see her through this, just as she has always done for them.

_They walk up to the barn, ghostly looking amid the green of the hillside. Lucy stands beside her, breathlessly asking where the meteor hit. Just as she's about to reply, another ball of fire races across the sky, landing somewhere on Caroline's Peak above them. Frightened, the doctor's wife opens the doors and pushes her daughter inside. Lucy screams and thrashes against them, but if the barn wants what it lost then it is her duty to return it. _

On her second night home, her fever spikes again. And holding her hand isn't cutting it anymore.

So they lay on either side of her, holding on.

_The doctor's wife claims insanity at her trial._

_Her husband stares at her, disbelieving. In his mind, he remembers coming home that night with Lucy's fiancé, finding his younger daughter in tears. His wife returns later that night, with a resigned look in her eyes and splinters in her hands. __Telling him that Lucy had gone away and was not returning._

_The next day, the rumours are already flying that she killed her child in a fit of jealousy. That she tried to prevent her from being jilted at her wedding. The kinder ones speak of Lucy doing that herself, that she ran away. One person says the barn took her, as a witches' sacrifice. But when they see the stricken face of her fiancé they know that nobody loved Lucy more and that anyone saying otherwise is a fool. _

Audrey Parker opens her eyes after six days of non stop fever dreams.

Her boys are next to her, warm and comforting. She touches their faces, runs her fingers over their strong arms.

She still feels strange, like she's been in an epic battle that she was about to lose.

But she remembers voices and faces. She remembers the scent of lillies and someone tugging on her hair.

_Lucy Prudence Rasmussen never returned to Haven. __Not after a month and not after a year._

_Three years after being sentenced to a life sentence in an insane asylum, the doctor's wife died of a sudden illness. The doctor himself lived six more years, still going for daily walks in the woods, until one day he did not return either. They found his body in the clearing, laying right in the middle, staring at the sky. _

_Twenty seven years later, a young woman appears in town, and doesn't understand why the elderly men on the street corner look at her as though they've seen a ghost._

They sit out on the deck, the three of them.

Audrey is securely wrapped in a blanket between them, and every now and the one them checks her for signs of a fever. She leans against Nathan's shoulder, staring at the sky.

Duke asks her if she's staying for good this time.

She smiles and kisses his cheek, and tells him that there no other place she belongs better then here.


	24. Home (Whenever)

Home (Whenever)

**Sarah**

They never go there.

In the past 50 years, they've avoided it, ignored it, walked by it every night.

Neither of them wants to be the first to admit that that broke their truce over it.

It's the second door on the right, just as you come up the stairs.

When Dave isn't around, his brother sometimes takes the key out of the old cake tin and sits on the bed, listening to the silence.

"_On a rainy day in early 1956, she shows up on their doorstep. __Soaked to the bone, her belly obvious underneath her raincoat. __Vince has no idea what to do with her. She's crying, saying she needs help."_

Everything is just as she left it behind.

Her dresser, her bed, her floor length mirror.

„_They settle her in their guest room, and they try to make her comfortable. For three months, they live unconventionally but he can't imagine doing it any other way"_

There are still bottles of perfume neatly lined on her make up table, along with her hair brush.

„_In late March, he waits downstairs while Dr. Carr helps her bring her child into the world. Somewhere in the dark of the morning, he hears her scream, followed by the wails of new life. When he's finally allowed in, he finds her holding a little scrap of humanity. __It's by far, one of the best things that ever happened to him."_

He looks over at the crib at the foot of the bed. At the toy that was left behind.

There's only silence now.

**Lucy**

It's a lonely motel room. Right there at the top of the stairs at the Over The Way.

After she'd gone, Garland issued a notice it wasn't to be rented out to anyone until the investigation finished. The investigation died out, but the order somehow was upheld.

Some local lore says that she died there, that she haunts it.

Which is nonsense, of course, because everyone knows where The Healer goes when her time is up.

The truth is that he's the only who has the key. He keeps it in an evidence bag in his nightstand drawer. He goes up there sometimes, when he's particularly lonely or when Nathan is making life difficult again.

He sits on the bed, looks at the way she left it.

He looks at the journal she kept, the one he doesn't have the proper key for.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees her standing there, with sad eyes. He bats it away, thinking he really should allow the room to be rented out again.

It's been 15 and a half years now, and she'll be living in starlight for a while yet.

**Audrey**

She deserves better.

Duke observes her and the other Audrey as they sit outside their tiny motel rooms, drinking what he hopes is just lemonade and scarfing down cupcakes.

Her room is so tiny, he thinks. She's been here for three months, hasn't she? What was it about her that makes him care so much?

He thinks about the storage space above the restaurant. It's an old speakeasy, but if used right could be a comfortable home.

Now they're discussing the state of the showers in this place, and good gambler that he is, sees an opportunity.

She deserves a real home. And while it's not going to win her heart, he knows that it's a step in the right direction.


	25. Dozen and One

Title: Dozen and One

Summary: Thirteen little add ons, one for each episode in season 3

Disclaimer: Don't own nothing per usual.

_**Sharp**_

She's cold.

She's not supposed to be here.

Those two thoughts occupy her weary, half conscious mind.

She can tell night has fallen, there's an owl hooting somewhere outside.

As her headache is slowly ebbing away, she conjures plans.

There's fire and shards and blood on her wrists.

Later, when Nathan leads her away, she's still cold.

And she wasn't supposed to be here.

_**Palm of your hand**_

She has a dog, a real honest to God dog.

Right now, he's fast asleep on a pile of blankets while she gets ready.

Nathan will be here, later. To walk the dog, officially.

But non officially, to make up for that night they never had.

Little does she know, for the night that might not ever come now.

_**Sacrifice**_

He'd do anything for her.

It's a strange thing to realise, in the middle of a cold forest.

Harry Nix dies, and he watches.

Later, at the Gull, he curses her for it.

_**Gloves**_

Jordan McKee keeps men at a distance.

She's safer that way, and they're definitely safer that way.

But when the Chief of Police saunters into the bar and takes an interest in her, safety is the last thing on her mind.

He grabs her wrist, and nothing happens.

No pain, no writhing, no swearing.

For a little while, she lets herself believe that fate might actually be on her side this time.

_**Night**_

He could spend all night watching her sleep.

The thought seemingly comes out of nowhere, overwhelms him a little.

So while she sleeps, he says those words he can't tell her while looking her in the eye.

„_Goodnight, Audrey Parker"_

_**Reflect**_

Lucy Ripley has a thing for old houses.

She believes that houses, like humans, have a soul that stays behind when the people leave.

This soul though, she can feel it.

In the mirrors, in the intercoms. In the teasing voice that follows them everywhere.

"_You know so very little, Lucy Ripley. __Just you wait and see."_

_**Reveal**_

June Cogan has one clear memory.

One autumn day, long ago, a woman and her infant son came to their house.

She stayed a few days, then left her son behind and never came back.

Such pretty hair, such pretty eyes.

Sarah, her name was. The woman who vanished.

_**Straw**_

He finds her on the deck of the Gull.

The party is still going below, and he hadn't noticed she'd gone until he thought to buy her a drink.

She's clutching a pink monstrosity with a straw, high in sugar and alcohol.

He sits down beside her, and she offers it to him.

The sugar rushes to his brain, causing a head ache he doesn't feel.

She reaches for him, for the space where the bullet entered his chest.

„_Doesn't hurt."_

She pulls back, looking at her fingertips.

„_Yes, it does."_

_**Yearn**_

He tells her he's never coming back, to keep everyone safe.

But in truth, the urge to try never goes away.

He wonders what it would be like. Being with her. Living with her.

Knowing what he knows now, he almost dials Stuart Mosley's number. He almost gives in.

_**Run**_

Jordan has heard the legend of Lucy Ripley many times growing up.

About her ardent refusal to go into the Barn, about the strange man dead on the beach.

Jordan knows something nobody else knows.

She watched, 27 years ago, from the woods. Her father and his friends, holding a gun to her head while leading her to the Barn.

Later, he told her that that's what happened to bad girls trying to escape their fate.

_**Overdue**_

Three months.

They've flown by, Audrey thinks.

The thought of how she spent those months is enough to bring her to tears.

She could have been with him, he could have been here tonight.

He should be here tonight.

She dials his number, says what she's been wanting to say.

And she hopes it's not too late.

_**Dance**_

If she gets wiped tomorrow, then this will be the memory she wants to hold on to.

Safe in his arms, in the middle of a high school gym, dancing to a cheesy love song.

She wants it to last forever, this dance.

She wants another one after this.

Almost, in that split second before hell breaks loose, she wants to lay her head against his chest.

_**Tomorrow**_

There is no tomorrow.

Nathan stands shell shocked on the grass for hours, until the Teagues lead him away.

He looks at them, at their weary faces.

Vince loved Sarah, Vince lost Sarah.

Sometime, when tomorrow does come, he'll ask how he got through it.

But in Nathan's grieving mind, tomorrow doesn't exist.


	26. Dozen and One (II)

Title: Dozen and One

Summary: Thirteen little add ons, one for each episode in season 2

Disclaimer: Don't own nothing per usual. Also,

**Arrangements**

The first 24 hours after Garland Wournos dies go by in a haze.

Because there's a strange woman who says she's Audrey Parker, and biblical plagues, and ultimately, a near death experience.

When he drives her back to her motel room that night, she carefully suggests he bury his father. Even offers to go with him. He declines the offer, but he goes to see her, after.

They sit together, in silence, and he can't help but notice how enticingly close her hand rests next to his.

**Pop Corn**

Audrey Parker is nine the first time she goes to the carnival.

She remembers being awed by the colours and the balloons and the neverending array of stuffed animals.

She remembers stupid Rita Clarke, and the irritating way she'd smack her gum while daring her go into the funhouse. Audrey Parker wasn't an easily frightened child, not by plastic spiders and fake cobwebs, anyway.

But that thing came out of nowhere, but mainly she recalls the teeth.

Audrey Parker hasn't been back to a carnival since that day.

**Gemini**

"Like, sisters"

It's not that she lost her memories, it's not that she'll be leaving soon.

Memories can be retrieved, she can always come back here.

But Audrey hurts the most over the feeling that she's lost her sister. Not a foster sister, only there for a fixed amount of time ( a day, a month, a year, but never for always). A real one. Who remembered things she remembered, who argued with her over vampire novels and thinking outside the box.

Maybe one person who looks at her and doesn't see the ghost of Lucy Ripley.

It aches to let her sister go, so bad.

**Red/Blue**

Chris Brody hates Haven.

He hates that his father, per usual, gets all the attention.

All these kids, they deserve the attention.

Not his father, not freakin Nathan Wournos or that strangely enticing partner of his.

But then the unthinkable happens, and all the attention turns on him.

And only in one moment, when he's alone in a room with her, he finds it's not a bad thing.

**Eavesdrop**

It's an accident.

He's down at the station for a quote for the newspaper, when he hears them.

„Would you mind dropping off the marriage license on your way out?"

„Actually, I was meeting Chris tonight."

"Brody?"

"No, Rock. Yes, Brody. That is…ok, isn't it?"

"No, it's fine, go have uh, your ehm…date."

He watches her go, Brody is waiting for her in the bullpen.

The fact that the first thing he sees is vague disappointment, makes sure that the plan is set in motion immediately.

**Hours**

When there are six hours remaining until sundown, she watches as Chris pulls out of the parking lot of the Gull, with promises of calling and souvenirs.

Honestly, she doesn't feel anything resembling grief as his car disappears from sight. It's almost a relief.

She turns around and makes it up the stairs to her apartment. The first thing that catches her eye is her alarm clock and its bright blue display.

Without hesitation, she unplugs it and crawls under the covers.

She only wakes up when Duke and Nathan try to beat down her door, frantic with worry.

Yesterday has gone, finally.

**Bet**

"Enjoying the party?"

Lucy Ripley edges herself on the bench, next to him.

She looks around, studies the crowd at the wedding. People dancing, talking.

She sees the bride, beaming next to her new husband.

"I give it five years."

She stares at him, incredulously. Garland clearly isn't the one in the loop with the town gossip.

"I give it one."

He takes a drag of his cigarette, before asking her why.

"Christmas party at the Second Chance, last January. No way could she mistake her fiance and his brother, just no way."

Garland snickers, and hopes that her keen eyes spotted the photographer as well.

**Unique**

„Am I unique?"

It's a really difficult question for his hungover brain.

But he's in her bed, the world is spinning, and he can't remember much of anything from the last 24 hours.

He sits up, but decides against it when the room goes flying.

„Yes"

„Am I?"

He opens his eyes and finds her sitting near the foot of the bed, holding a mug and what he believes is a packet of aspirin. Sweet life saving aspirin.

"Yes."

Thinking hurts, so he decides to keep it as brief as possible. Also, fight her for the aspirin.

"Yes, Audrey Prudence Parker, you are truly unique. Because no one else has ever looked so sweet yet so full of evil plans as you do right now."

She laughs, and then walks away, still holding the aspirin and her morning coffee.

**Said and Done.**

Breaking up has gotten easier.

At least, she thinks so.

She feels no need to go home and cry hysterically, or to do anything of signifance to somehow get over it.

Audrey thinks she's got enough demons to fight, enough people to help.

When she finally gets up from the bench by the water, she can't help but feel a cold shiver go through her.

**Campfire**

He looks at her in the light of the fire.

She hasn't been herself lately, who would be with her kind of life?

But there's really something different. She's angry. At him, at the world.

He doesn't know where Nathan is, or why he refuses to see it whenever Duke brings it up.

There are no real answers, he knows, that he can give her.

But what he does know, is that things are bound to get worse before they get better.

**Push**

He doesn't remember where he first got the notion of finding the real Lucy Ripley.

But he does remember why he wanted to find her.

He never told Audrey, but if he tries, he vaguely sees Lucy Ripley in his mind's eye. Standing in a doorway, or on the other side of his father's desk.

He remembers the scent of daisies.

He hopes she'll find her answers, and perhaps bring him one back too.

**Pull**

Dinner, he wants dinner?

Not that she hasn't been inside a restaurant before, or that she hasn't been on a date before.

The thought of the two of them sitting at a romantic table in the middle of the Gull, with a million prying eyes sends her head spinning.

So she decides they'll take it slow.

She likes comfort, he likes pancakes.

And who knows, perhaps he'd like dessert too.

Ornament

After the party ends, and she's helped the last guest out the door, she finds him leaning against her kitchen counter.

A little riled by the champagne, and not quite partied out yet, she saunters towards him.

„Merry non-Christmas, Audrey Parker."

He holds up a fist, and when her fingers touch his, they involuntarily move and unfold their surprise.

It's a bookmark, with the words „SUNNY GREETINGS FROM HAVEN MAINE" carved into the wood.

When she reaches for it, he pulls it away so that she's left with her arms around his waist.

She looks up at him, and sees all those Christmases yet to come in his eyes.

He kisses the top of her head while handing her the bookmark, and after that, Audrey Parker stops hating Christmas.


	27. In Time, Tomorrow

_In Time, Tomorrow._

**1956**

At his most desperate, he goes to see Stuart. Begs him, almost pathetically.

Stuart freaks out, and his wish is granted.

He finds her, in her room at the Teagues house, sweating and panting.

Her eyes light up when she sees him, and not ten minutes later, their son is born.

He stays with them until the sun rises, and then Stuart brings him home.

**1978**

Helen Hansen knows the phone call will come.

A harsh ringing at 3 am, a voice on the answering machine telling her that they're releasing him.

When it does, she lets it ring over and over. She searches her dresser for the postcard that Garland sent her. The one with the pretty lighthouse and cloudless sky.

Three days later, Helen Hansen dresses her baby son up warm against the Maine cold, and boards a bus to Bangor.

Inside the house, the phone rings again.

No one answers.

**1980**

In 1980, James Cogan almost travels to Haven.

He just graduated college, and wants to take a road trip before embarking on the rest of his life. So he packs a suitcase and leaves Denver, with no particular destination in mind.

When he reaches the Maine border, he skims over the map, reading all the odd place names.

Aroostock, Bangor, Haven, Derry.

It's particularly the third one that he's interested in.

Right in front of the last sign that leads him there, his car stalls and refuses to budge.

He calls a tow truck from a pay phone, and decides on Bangor instead.

**1981 **

It's all over town.

Garland Wournos ran off and got himself married.

He walking around town with her, his arm around her shoulders.

In front of them, a little boy darts around, constantly asking for attention.

When Vince Teagues hears the boy say his name, he thinks the world is coming to a screeching halt for a second.

Nathan Wournos is here. Nathan Wournos is four years old.

But he knows those eyes, and he knows what is to be done.

**1983**

Lucy Ripley decides to take a break.

Away from deadlines, away from her editor.

He told her about this place, said it was good for fishing.

Lucy holds no particular interest for fishing, but all the more for good seafood and getting the best scenic shots her old camera can provide for her.

She drives into town, thinking about her lover back in New York and the way she left him in her bed a day ago.

She is pulled from her reverie when she sees him by the side of the road.

A little boy, no older then seven, with dark eyes and dark hair.

Lucy Ripley meets Duke Crocker on the side of the road.

She soon learns that Duke is always found where you least expect him.

One day, on a beach, she'll wish she hadn't.

**2010**

The Chief has been grumpy all day.

Well, in Nathan's eyes, he always is, but today takes the cake.

To top it off, there's a murder victim on the beach, and Garland hates murder cases.

It's only when the techs are out of earshot that he brings it up.

That the FBI is interested in the case, and would he see if they've arrived yet?

He says it loud enough for a few people to turn their heads curiously.

Before it can turn into another fight, Nathan turns on his heels and heads back to town.

Right over the town border, he notices a car perched precariously over the edge of a cliff.

"Welcome to Haven"; he mutters under his breath and gets out to assist.

**2013**

One sunny morning in Haven, six months after the unthinkable happens, a minor car accident occurs on Main Street.

It's no more then a few scrapes and bruised egos, yet Nathan feels compelled to go check it out.

While he's listening to one driver drone on about Insurance, there's a strange buzzing in the air.

He looks over at the crowd, looks for her, always does.

Just when he decides that he can't do anything more, he feels a slight pressure on his arm.

"Excuse me, can you tell me when the road will be cleared, I'm late for a job interview at Haven Medical."

He takes a deep breath, and turns around to find her there.

Like she never left.


	28. Dozen and One (III)

Title: Dozen and One (part III)

Summary: Thirteen little add ons, one for each episode in season 1

Disclaimer: Don't own nothing per usual. Also, season 1 was a really difficult one. Especially for Sketchy.

**Sand and Water**

Garland Wournos looks out over the ocean.

Watches the way the waves lap upon the shore, in a soothing familiar rythm.

He's been watching them for as long as he can remember. How many sandcastles he built here, how many girls he kissed over there. He proposed to Helen right there, where small waves are rolling on the sand.

He got the hem of his good trousers muddy, and she didn't stop laughing for an hour. But she said yes.

The shivers come closer together now, he knows he'll be with her soon.

He looks over at the waves, closes his eyes and holds on tight.

**Indent**

He was surprised she'd come to the party.

But she did, the mysterious, enigmatic Lucy Ripley.

It's stupid how much of a crush he has on her. But he knows she only has eyes for the other mysterious stranger who came to town last week.

They sit on the couch, sharing a cigarette and talking. She's laughing over something he's telling her, probably the one and only time he's seen her like that.

The room goes blurry, and when he opens his eyes he sees her hovering over him.

The next morning he notices the dark red foot prints on the hardwood floor.

**Comfort**

The first thing she tells him when he calls her later that night is that she quit the FBI.

It comes spilling out of her, and if he didn't know any better he would think she was slightly panicking.

He re assures her that they'll talk about it some more in the morning and that she should get some rest.

But when the conversation ends, he feels incredibly relieved that she's decided to stay.

Almost over the moon.

**Effort**

Audrey Parker is the first woman in a long time who has been able to get under his skin.

She hadn't wanted to do anything for her birthday, something about foster homes and bad experiences. And if there's one thing Duke can commiserate with is lonely birthdays.

She doesn't deserve that.

So he plans and ducks her questions.

He digs out the locket, still pristine in its box.

Audrey Parker is the first woman Duke Crocker thinks is worth making the effort for.

**Healing**

The stories are all true.

Jess Minion realises this on a cold day in December, five months after she's left Haven.

Not that she ever really doubted it.

Everything her grandmother told her about a fair maiden and a curse befalling people who did her wrong, they're all true.

She wonders if she should call Nathan, or if he's known all along too.

**Ghost of You**

Eleanor thinks she's grown too old for all this madness.

This is her third cycle, her second as a doctor.

Long ago, when she was a little girl, she knew a woman just like the one sitting opposite her.

She had shiny red hair, and Eleanor remembers being relieved that she wasn't the only one anymore.

Not so very long ago, she knew this woman too.

She didn't stay long, she never really does. Just long enough to learn to love someone.

Audrey, the woman she knows now, is different. Stronger, more driven.

She hopes to know her 27 years from now, still.

**Stand by Me**

Audrey Parker is one of those people who can really count her number of friends on one hand.

When she was little, she was always the leader to scared children who didn't know any better. She tied their shoes, dried their tears and watched them come and go away again.

The foster system isn't kind on friendships, either.

She attended three different schools, blended in at all of them but never stood out. She could run and swim and win every local swim or athletics competition with her hands behind her back. She vaguely remembers a girl named Stephanie and a boy named Michael. He took her to prom, at least once. Perhaps took a little more too.

Adult Audrey Parker has pathetically little need for friendship.

She works, she travels, and is basically too busy to care that no one ever waters the plants for her.

But here, in this town, she's made to stand still and make friends.

And for some reason she's grateful for that.

**Outlet**

She annoys the living daylights out of him.

With all her talk of animal whispering and shamans, she doesn't get it.

Garland Wournos looks at the calendar on the wall and realises she's been here a whole month now.

One down, five more to go.

He's waited for her. Waited and waited until one day he realised how long twenty seven years would be. And then he stopped.

Now that she's bulldozed her way back in, he thinks it's all going way too fast.

She has so much to learn, and now five months doesn't seem long enough.

Mainly because he knows he won't be here when they finally run out.

**Etymology**

She has his eyes.

Audrey looks down at the infant, and all she sees is big brown eyes.

While Duke is being wheeled away towards an ambulance, she mulls over names.

Jenny, Jasmine, Julie.

She shakes her head, as though to rid herself of these weird thoughts. But she has a thing for J names, she realises.

Nathan has appeared beside her and goos at the baby in that irritating voice.

"You could name her after Duke's mom, you know. Jeanne."

She looks up at him, and the familiarity of it scares them both.

**Stake out**

He casually brings it up the morning after the incident at the Farmers Market.

About the restaurant re opening and them needing to stake it out.

Together.

He stumbles over the word and grips the steering wheel a little tighter.

She laughs and asks him if she'll need a dress.

He nods, and then she realises that all three of her good dresses are in her closet in Boston.

They change the subject and ignore the subject for the rest of the day.

**Flora**

He stands on the deck of the boat, watching as Haven grows smaller and smaller.

In a few minutes, it'll disappear in the mist and be gone from him for good.

_Daisies, snapdragons._

Lucy. That's what her name was. With the brown hair and the sad eyes.

_Daisies, snapdragons._

Coming into the shop every Friday afternoon.

_Daisies, snapdragons._

The mist closes in and takes the memory away.

He thinks it was daisies, or lilies perhaps. Or was that the one that came before?

**Fleeting**

Hannah Driscoll has known Nathan Wournos for as long as her memory serves her.

The little boy with the cast on his arm.

_She writes her name on it, in big crooked letters. _

The boundlessly energetic seven year old, his cheeks flushed with cold.

_That stops, and she doesn't know why. She won't ask because there's no one thinking it's not a mortal sin or a strange contagious disease._

The tall lanky teenager. Handsome in his tuxedo when he steals her away to go to the prom.

_He treats her like a princess, for three glorious weeks until graduation._

The desperate man he became. Longing for something she couldn't give him, not even if she ran away with him.

Hannah Driscoll sees them together now and suddenly it all makes sense.

_Take good care of him, Audrey Parker, you have no idea how important that is._

**Regenerate**

Lucy Ripley used to have a list of things she wanted to do before dying.

Time travel wasn't one of them.

She looks around and knows that she did.

For one glorious hour, Lucy basks in that feeling.

A man in a suit meets her on the corner of a street covered in neon lights.

He points inside, and she sees a brown haired woman working on a device she's never seen before.

The man tells her it's called a laptop and she thinks it's a rather silly name.

She regards the woman as she sips coffee, and taps her fingers on the lap-thing-device.

All she has to do is bump into her, at random.

She bides her time until a little after 3 am when the owner kicks the woman out and they bump shoulders on the corner.

The memories fill her. Cold ones and few warm ones.

The world goes dark.

Lucy Ripley still has a lot of things she wishes she could do.

Perhaps Audrey Parker can do those for her now.


End file.
